


Hold Onto Me, 'cause I'm a Little Unsteady

by TomiTom



Series: Reguri Week 2020 [7]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Childhood Friends, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Growing Up Together, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, M/M, People are Assholes, Selectively Mute Red (Pokemon), Sign Language, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:27:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26650660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TomiTom/pseuds/TomiTom
Summary: Reguri Week 2020 Day 7Red has words on his arm. Green doesn't. It doesn't matter.
Relationships: Ookido Green | Blue Oak/Red
Series: Reguri Week 2020 [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1933411
Comments: 4
Kudos: 173





	Hold Onto Me, 'cause I'm a Little Unsteady

**Author's Note:**

> And finally, Day 7. I actually did it, I did an entire Reguri Week. I should be proud of myself.
> 
> Today's prompts were Soulmates or Childhood and I decided to connect them.
> 
> Just something soft for the last day. Btw, before I changed Day 4 to AU instead of Galar, I expected this one to be the longest one. Oh well.

_Careful, he can shock you!_

Those were the words written on the inside of Red’s left lower arm. They were the first words he learned how to read after his mother used to read them out loud to him what felt like a thousand times. They were the first words his soulmate would say to him.

Red had always been excited about the concept of soulmates. As a shy kid raised by a single mother after his own father walked out on them, Red never really opened up much to other people. He barely spoke, and when he did, it were only a few quiet words to his mother. But a soulmate was your perfect partner. Not everyone had them or met them – Red’s parents hadn’t been soulmates, for example – but Red had one and he was determined to find them.

And find them, he did. At six, Red found a Jolteon while he was out shopping with his mom. And before he could touch the friendly, squeaking Pokémon, a voice warned him with the exact words written on his arm.

The speaker was a boy around his age, a bit taller, with bright orange hair, freckles, two gaps in his teeth, and differently colored eyes.

His name was Green, and he didn’t have words anywhere on his skin. This was the first problem that arises. They didn’t know whether Green was really blank and Red’s soul bond was unrequited, or Red would never ever speak a single word to him.

Red didn’t care. And soon, Green didn’t either. Why should they? They got along amazingly, they were best friends soon after meeting. Green made sure people didn’t tease Red for being quiet and shy, and Red made sure people didn’t tease Green for the way he looked.

When Green’s parents died, he stayed with Red. Red started holding his hand whenever he could, to always make sure Green knew that he was there. Green spoke way less in the first months, but he and Red had their own language anyway. They used signs, or sometimes, they just understood each other from a single look. Red didn’t care if Green had words or not – they were soulmates.

Red finally met Green’s grandfather, the Pokémon Professor. He was friendly and showed Red a lot about his research, and that was the first time that he and Green got into a fight. Apparently, whenever Green tried to take interest, he was shooed off, and his grandfather barely paid attention to him on a good day. And to see Red get all of this in a single day made Green snap.

They somehow got it together again. Something like this would happen again and again in the future, but somehow, they stayed strong together.

At eleven, they wanted to go on their Pokémon Journey together. It was a thing meant for soulmates where they would put their teams together and challenge the eight Gyms in Kanto in Pokémon Battles until they reached the Elite Four.

Red and Green made a formidable team together. They blazed through the Gyms like they were nothing, always together, always one step ahead of their opponents. By the end, they had six Pokémon each on their Battle Teams, but both would only be allowed to use three in battle to keep things fair. Green had one extra Pokémon that never went into a fight, Eva, his Eevee that tried her best to become a scarf.

But when they reached the Elite Four, their dreams shattered before them. Only proven soulmates were allowed to take on the challenge. And since Green didn’t have words, despite the fact everyone knew that Red didn’t talk, they weren’t allowed to enter.

That was when everything started. They had to leave the Indigo Plateau without a chance to reach the title of Champions. And the press heard of this. And from that day on, people kept pushing, kept talking, kept gossiping. They all agreed on one thing: it was Green fault that they couldn’t do it. He should have let Red go, let him find his true soulmate – it was true that often times people would have their words said by people who weren’t their soulmates, but Red knew that Green was his.

It got really bad. Which was the reason why Red was here, at thirteen, in Green’s room with Pika on his shoulder, and Green in front of him with despair and anger on his face.

“You want to leave?” Green’s voice cracked and that wasn’t just because of puberty.

Red looked away for just a moment and bit his lip, but then he met Green’s gaze once more and nodded.

**_You know it’s getting too much_** , he signed. **_I can’t._**

Green shook his head and clenched his eyes shut. Eva cooed gently at him, but Red knew that nothing would be able to calm Green down.

“And what am I supposed to do?” Green asked now, pacing up and down, running his hands through his hair. He turned back to Red. “You know what the people are going to say? That I drove you away. I’m the reason you left the same way I’m the reason you can’t be Champion. I’m always why your life sucks! That’s all they say!” He got louder the more he spoke. Then, his voice broke again. “And I thought that I at least had you. I thought you’d have my back.”

Red took a step forward, his eyes widened. He didn’t want to abandon Green! That had never been his plan!

**_You can come with me._ **

“You know I can’t. My family …” He paused. “What about your mother?”

Red really didn’t want to admit this. He really wished he could keep this a secret from Green. He didn’t want him to hurt further. But he did deserve the truth.

**_She says I should look for someone else._ **

“What?”

Red almost flinched at the pain in Green’s voice. He understood, of course. Of all the people out there, Red’s mom was the last one he had expected to be against his soul bond with Green. But she had started dropping hints that maybe, Green saying his words had been a coincidence that he should start looking again.

Green rubbed the back of his hand over his eyes. “I’ll stay here. There’s nothing you can say that’ll change it. But I won’t tell anyone about you.”

**_I’m heading to Mount Silver._** Just in case Green ever wanted to find him or something.

But all Green did was nod and turn away from Red as if he couldn’t bear watch him leave. Red didn’t want to leave Green behind, but he also couldn’t take the annoying press and the annoying people giving him unwanted advice. He could only hope that Green would be fine without him.

\------------------------

Red stayed on the mountain for nine whole years. In that time, all he did was train on his own. This wasn’t something that was just done. People with Pokémon always had their soulmate as their partner. But people hadn’t let Red be with his soulmate, so now he was a trainer strong all on his own.

And he knew Green had done the same thing. Even up here, he had means to get information. He found out that, soon after Red left, Green had become a Gym Leader. The strongest of them, and the only one that challengers were required to take on alone, without their partner. A last challenge before the Elite.

But then, he stopped hearing about Green. It was like from one moment to the next – nothing. And Red was worried. He knew that the media hadn’t stopped blaming Green for Red’s disappearance and for the fact that Red, the most promising trainer in ages, couldn’t become Champion.

And so, Red returned from Mount Silver at twenty-one. He returned to Kanto and couldn’t give less of a damn about the people welcoming him back. Even his own mother. He knew what they had said. He knew what they had done. They were no friends of his.

Leaf, on the other hand, was. She had been a friend to Green and Red since they were kids, and she had made sure to keep an eye on Green when Red left. And she was the one who told Red what had happened to Green.

“He left, around three years ago,” she told him. “I guess everything got to be too much.”

**_Do you know where he went?_ **

“Last I heard? Kalos.”

Red’s confusion must have shown on his face, because Leaf laughed. But seriously, what the fuck was Kalos?

“It’s a region. Far away from here. They got a whole different view on the soulmate thing, and love, and have been researching that for years. Green wanted to go to university there. I don’t know if he’s still there, but that’s your best bet. Lumiose City.”

So Red thanked her and decided to leave immediately. The plane ticket wasn’t cheap, but Red was a legendary Trainer and hadn’t touched the money he earned on his Pokémon Journey since he was thirteen years old – he could afford it. Besides, Green was worth it.

Kalos was big and loud and bright. Kanto was full of small towns, and Mount Silver was mostly empty. It was a weird feeling, being here.

Red also didn’t exactly have a plan when he came here, and he kind of hated his past self for this kneejerk reaction. He should have planned ahead. But now, here he was, in a foreign city where he did not speak the language – not that he’d speak, but that was beside the point.

Still, somehow he found his way to the Professor of this region – a friendly man named Augustine Sycamore. Luckily, he spoke Kantonian, even if heavily accented. Red didn’t care. He spoke to the Professor via writing things down instead of Sign Language – he wasn’t sure how different Kantonian and Kalosian Sign Language were, and he wasn’t even sure whether the Professor knew it.

What the Professor did know, however, was where Green was. And after recognizing who Red was and proclaiming excitedly that Green had talked a lot about him, he gave Red the address to Green’s apartment.

So, with an encouraging squeak from Pika, Red said goodbye and thank you to the Professor and made his way to the street that the Professor had written down for him. Luckily, Red still knew how to read maps, and even though he didn’t understand a word, he at least knew which street was the right one.

And thus, he was there in no time, standing in front of Green’s door after he knocked. He hadn’t noticed how nervous he really was until he stood there, about to come face to face with his best friend and soulmate once again. For the first time in nine years.

And when the door opened, he lost his breath. He knew he had missed Green, but he hadn’t realized how much. Only now that he saw him again, he knew. Green looked the same but more grown up. Taller, a little more muscular. His hair was still the same ridiculous mess, and his bicolored eyes grew wide when he saw Red.

**_I’m sorry, Green._** Red had spent ages thinking about what to say – sign, whatever – to Green first, but he felt like this was a good start.

Green blinked, then he stepped forward and crushed Red in a hug.

“You’re here,” he said. His voice was deeper now, and sounded rough, but that might have been the tears that Red had seen in his eyes.

Red hugged him back and buried his face in his shoulder. People could say Green wasn’t his soulmate all they wanted, but feeling this safe, Red knew that there was no person in the world that would ever make him feel like this.

Their relationship was basically nothing now, but from that, they built something entirely new. Something better, something closer, something different than before. Not all soulmates were romantic, but Red knew that he and Green were. It felt so natural to fall in love with him that Red didn’t feel surprised once he noticed.

It was an inevitable shift that neither of them really commented on. But they started sitting and walked closer to each other. At some point, Red started sleeping in Green’s bed instead of the guest room, they started holding hands whenever they could, and a kiss came without a second thought. It was them, and it made sense.

And Red didn’t care. Whether Green had words or not, he loved him. And he always would, there was no way around that. And so, he started training with his Pokémon as his only witnesses. After not speaking in years, his throat almost killed him for the offense of daring to say something. But he pulled through, he practiced, until he was sure he could talk to Green without his voice breaking and obscuring what he wanted to say.

The day came soon, a lazy afternoon spent in their apartment on the couch. Red paused the movie they were watching and turned to look at Green. Green met his eyes, a little confused, until Red opened his mouth.

“Green, I love you.”

Green smiled, a little fond, maybe a little pained. Until his eyes widened in surprise and he stared at Red like he was seeing him for the first time. His hand twitched up to the left side of his face, and then he turned his head to the side just in time for Red to see the words fading into existence behind the shell of Green’s ear.

_Green, I love you._

“You- we are.” Green’s breath caught in his throat but the grin on his face was bright.

Red’s lower arm and the spot beneath his left collarbone started tingling. He looked at his arm as the old words disappeared from his skin. With an open mouth, he pulled the collar of his shirt aside to look at the new words now present on his chest.

_You … we are._

A hand touched the words carefully, and Red caught Green’s fingers in his to press a kiss against them. Green smiled and crawled closer to him.

“What just happened?” he asked.

“I’ve read about this before,” Green muttered, hooking his head underneath Red’s chin. “When two blank people grow really close and genuinely wish to become soulmates, they will. And they will carry the first words exchanged after reaching that state.”

The first words exchanged. While Green had said a lot since they had met, Red had never once spoken until today. So, this was their first real exchanging of words. And it finally marked them as what they should have been all those years ago. Soulmates, not only chosen by some higher power, but apparently also chosen by themselves.

Red kissed Green’s forehead and closed his eyes. Those new words weren’t something people would easily understand like his old ones, but Red liked these better. The awe and love in Green’s eyes and voice when he spoke would always stay in his mind, as well as the knowledge that this was just them. Which was the way it was supposed to be.

**Author's Note:**

> Aaaand we're done. Let's see when I manage to write something up again. I got some ideas, but man, am I bad with motivation. Leave me something if you like.


End file.
